Pets and Events

Our Pet situation:  

Our beloved Athena, at the wise old age of 7 or 8 years old (that's between 50 and 60 years old)-- has four living puppies.   Pictured here are the two that we think we'll keep-- their "pet" names are Twinkle Toes and Wrinkle face.  I'm pretty sure they also have Tolkien names as well but i can't seem to keep those straight--Bjorn and Thorin perhaps! Even if one of them is a girl! 

Which brings me to our cat... The cat's name has been "Fiasco", then Mr. Whiskers, and now is mostly referred to as Bilbo.  Bilbo is also expecting kittens sometime! Yikes, I don't know that i'm up for this den of nurturing going on all around me! Luckily, the kids are taking their roles of pet care seriously--Daniel's in charge of the dogs including poop pick up which isn't pleasant and Mary is taking her job with the cat seriously.



Friends for the kids:

We have been I think unusually blessed to have a number of families on campus the whole time we've been in Uganda.  I do feel like our kids are growing up with some of the benefits of the "old" days in terms of a sort of pack of kids, various ages and personalities, a somewhat cousin-like acceptance that these other kids are your people and you going along, get along.  Despite some loud moments of disagreement,  there is an overriding sense of acceptance and belonging for the kids that I wouldn't trade (even if I grumble for the fact that about my lack of knowing when the house will be silent and when the whole pack will descend).

Our kids with friends, after swimming at a nearby pool

Tour at a sugar factory with the Dennisons who are also homeschooling

Sadly, this was the cough drop making week at the factory-- a reality that Rachel wasn't happy about

Events:

1. Halloween-- Halloween basically consists of trick or treating on campus.  Sometimes when a family has the energy we've done a little Halloween party but with many kids in Kampala schools (i.e. leaving home at 6:15 am), Thursday night is not an ideal time to have kids up late.  Here you can see that the Elmo costume we had for Daniel at age 3 is still getting use! I'm afraid Noll may win the cake for cutest in the Elmo suit!

Trick or treating at Rachel's house-- we had about 10 houses to stop at which was nice. 

2. Solar Eclipse
a. a recent article about Solar Eclipse in Uganda.
b. different forms for viewing eclipse... glasses that Rachel is putting on. Also you see basins of water in the yard--you can look at the reflection in the water

Pin-hole photo box: Don't know that I can explain it but Mark made a box with a pin-hole prick and the image of the sun is shown at the end of the box (upside down, I think). I gather this is similar to what artist would have used back in the day to try and make more photographic images of what they were going to paint.

You see the small image of the moon passing over the sun in the box?

I think all the adults could appreciate the change in the quality of light, but i'll confess that the kids were expecting that it might get as black as night when it happened and therefore had fun running around but weren't awe-struck by the event.  

3. Kampala Kids League: A weekly event we've tried this fall is joining Kampala Kids league.  It is a very organized football league that is open to those who can pay, but mostly is a project that uses its profits for making football available to disadvantaged kids.  Mark is there right now with the kids which is why I have the chance to write this blog entry! :)

For grandparents and the very devoted, there are some cute pictures of the kids on the KKL facebook page-- click here: photos of the kids at the league.